Production of artistic designs or pictures.



. UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

' time mromn, or rsrnoiiaerswirznsmsn prnonucrroir-or .lmrrs'rrc nssrens on memes.

To all whom it may concern:

. Be it known that I, EMILE LAPORTE, a

' citizen of the French Republic, and resident is a full, clear, afid exact specification.

This invention-has for its object the production of ictures imitating in effect etchings of the est finish and without the intervention in any way of the talent of an engraver for the purpose of cutting away the metal of the plate. The images obtained by the process are artistic and consequently difierent from those which can be obtained through the intervention of photography.

, The process is realized .in preparing, with the intervention of light, the plate or surface which is to receive the impression this late or surface being impressedor affected y --a transparent sheet which bears the design itself executed in pencil or otherwise by t e artist. But in order that one may design or depict on a surface it is necessary that this surface should not be smooth like glass but it is on the contrary neces'sarythat the surface should be grained as finely as possible in order that the point of the pencil which is passed over this surface may leave a trace which is more or less accentuated according to thetouch of the artist and the effect to be produced by the picture.

The process, the object of this invention, consists then in taking as a primitive surface a translucent sheet of which the surface is grained or roughened in order to permit of the artist executingthereon a portrait, a

scene or a picture of any other kind. The grain thus formed u on the surface which receives the picture iaving taken away the transparency of the material of the sheet it is necessary to restore to the supporting sheet employed its primitive transparency in order that it may be traversed by luminous rays as for an ordinary photographic stereotype for example. It is then that the supporting sheet bearing the picture of the artist and restoredto its transparency can serve to impress or affect a plate of copper which can afterwards be bitten into by the known meansfor etching lates 'or for affecting aplate of zinc as in-or inary 'zincography or for acting on a lithographic stone suitably prepared, the essential characteristic of. the process being in the employment as a supspecmcation *0! Letters Patent. Application filed September '6, i90l.- Serial No. 891,523.

mum Doc. as, 1908.

port 'of a transparent sheet which is first grained in order that the icture may be traced on its surface and which after being this rendered opaque has its transparency restored in order to permitof the passage 'therethrough of luminous rays.

The supporting sheet which one may employ to realize this process ma vary considerably. It suflices that it s all be capable .of being grained so that the picture can be traced upon it and that its trans p arency can be afterwards restored to it. 0 this end I employ by preference a sheet of polished cell oid of the clearest and most transparent kind obtainable. On that face which is the most level and smooth I form a grain more or less close and fine according" to the design which the artist wishes to .de ct andthe effect which he desires to pro uc'e. Asmall close grain suits best for a highly finished design while a larger and -more separated gram may be chosen by preference for a mere study. The grain being irregular, as is for that matter the drawin paper used by artists, the sheet of cellulold 1s rendered opaque by this graining and it is then that a crayon (the 'term crayon is used in its wide orgeneric sense) such for example as char.- coal pencil or the ink from a pen can adhere Eprfcctly to it. The artist having before m this sheet, grained and rendered opaque, placed u on a white surface or at least one sufiicient y clear'for the purpose, or better still upon a transparent drawing board lit effects which he can produce on ordinary drawin aper. This graining of the sheet of cellu 01d which fits it for the re'ce tion of a the design, may be effected by ifferent means. One way which gives good results consists in placing the sheet to be -grained upon a late of wood against which cylinders of J essemer steelwhose surfaces have been "out after the manner of files are rolled- Th'ese cylinders receiving a to and fro movement directly or by displacing the plate of wood which serves as a support for the plate, press into'the celluloid and form u on it a very irregular grain, the size and c oseness of the rain depending upon the mannerinwhich t esurfaces of the cylinders are out. Or the sheet of celluloid may be fixed at its four corners under the plate of a fi ress and pressed a ainst sheets of emery of difierent degrees of eness so as to produce diflerent graining efiects. By giving several pressures by the late of the press, the positlon of the sheet 0 emery being chan ed at each pressure, grainings qu1te irregu ar and different from one another may be obtained. In the case of plates of small size the grain may be produced on the celluloid by coverin the latter with a sheet of emery paper or 0 0th and striking with a hammer sufiiciently heavy and with a large striking surface. By suitably d1s lacing the sheet of emery cloth at each stro e and with a little practice it is soon easy to produce the exact graining which one desires for the execution of a picture.

Another efficacious method of obtammga convenient graining on the surface of celluloid consists in sprinkling or sprayin its surface with a solution of resin in alco ol. When the alcohol evaporates there remains on the celluloid a grained surface of fineparticles which-is very convenient fora highly finis hed picture. w Whatever the means employed to obta n the grained surface the artist executes-his design or picture as has been explained. When he has obtained the desired eifect it only remains to fix the picture and to restore to the sheet of celluloid its rim1t1ve "transparency, .this being only a 1ttle attenuated in the asperities or roughnesses whichvoonstitute the design. To thus fix the crayon, whatever it ma be, and restore its transparency to the ce luloid, one may have recourse to different means for exam le to treat the drawing with a convenient ixrueans capable of causing the crayon after some minutes to dip the sheet of celluioid into a bath of acetone, alcohol or other suitable liquid, with the object of restoring the transparency and of completing the fixation. Gr instead of this latter operation one may cover the surface of the picture with acetone, alcohol, or the like by means of a sprinkler or the like so as to roduce the necessary transparency and a so the complementary fixation. I preferably employ alcohol for these purposes. When the sheet of celluloid bearing thus the design of the antist has returned to its primitive transparency so as to allow of the passage of luminous rays there is nothing more to be done but to place it in contact with the surface which is to serve for printing the or the like to adhere to the celluloid, and

Impression in printing ink or the like.

' if one desires to obtain pictures resembling fine etchings thesheet of celluloid may be applied to a plate of copper covered by any coating or film sensitive to luminous rays and exposed to daylight in order that these luminous rays may produce their action u on the sensitive film of emulsion or the li e which is to be afiected. The plate of cooper may then be treated by any of the we known means employed in photo enraving attacked by acid and a copper plate ally obtained which can be immediately employed for the production of impressions or prints reproducing exactly the design executed by the artist on the grained sheet and without the intervention of an en aver. In employing in the same manner a s rest of zinc or a lithographic stone provided with a coating or film sensitive to light plates suitable for typography may be obtained and designs com med with dprinting book characters may be obtaine for journalistic or other printing work or the stones pre ared for lithographic reproduction may e used. The .same process may be advantageously utilized for engraving pictures mm glass repeated as often as may be desired the glass receiving a sensitive coating whichmay be afiected by the rays of light passing through the sheet of celluloid and hydrofluoric acid being as in the ordinary means employed for engraving on glass utilized for bitin more or less deeply into the vitreous material to reproduce the original etchingl Celluloid is not the only material which lends itself to the work just described as it sufiices that the material employed should be translucent and capable of being grained so as to have the picture executed thereon and so as to be capable of having its trans parency restored for the passage of luminous rays. Gelatin in particular may be used for the purpose of this work as well as other materials known in commerce as substitutes for celluloid.

'What I claim is:

1. The process hereinbefore set forth which consists in producing a grain upon a transparent sheet, executing a design or picture thereon, and afterwards fixing the said design on the sheet and restoring the transparency to the latter, substantially as 1l set forth and for the purpose described.

2. The rocess hereinbefore set forth which consists in subjecting a transparent sheet to the action of roughened surfaces to produce a grain upon the sheet, executing 126 a design or picture thereon, and afterwards fixin the said design on the sheet and restoring t e transparency to the latter, substantially as set forth and for the purpose described.

3. The process hereinbefore set forth which consists in subjecting a trans arent sheet to the action of roughened cy inders to produce a grain upon the sheet, executing a design or picture thereon and after- 130 wards fixing' the said design on the sheet and restoring the transparency to the latter,

substantially as set forth and for the purpose described. I j 5 4. The roeess hereinbefore set forth which consists in pro'duc' a grain upon a transparent sheet of cell oid, executmg a design or picture thereon, and afterwards fixing the said design on the sheet and restoring the transparency to the latter by treat- 10' ing it with alcohol, substantially as described.

' In witness whereof I have hereunto signed my name this 21 day of August 1907, in the presence of two subscribing witnesses.

EMILE LAPORTE.

Witnesses:

FRANeoIs BONNABRY, LEO J. FBANKENTHAL. 

